Skip to content

Lengyell is 2017 Junior Citizen of the Year

This year’s winner, Matthew Lengyell, is a rare young man who meets all the criteria.
web1_170524-CVAS-Jr-Cit
Matthew Lengyell heard only kind words as the Creston Rotary Club president-elect Mike Fitzpatrick announced that he was the Rotary Club’s selection as Junior Citizen of the Year.

BY LORNE ECKERSLEY

Advance staff

In the nomination form for the Creston Rotary Club’s Junior Citizen of the Year is a list of five qualifying categories are listed. This year’s winner, Matthew Lengyell, is a rare young man who meets all the criteria.

On Friday night at Prince Charles Theatre, Creston Rotary Club’s president-elect Mike Fitzpatrick presented Lengyell with the honour and summarized the PCSS student’s many qualities. Fitzpatrick said that only the passage of time prevented the committee from considering Lengyell’s act of heroism. In 2013, he and a friend were recognized by Creston Town Council for saving the life of a neighbour after coming across a fire.

“Since the fifth grade, Matthew has volunteered with packing Christmas hampers and can be heard encouraging anyone who listens to come help in the season,” Fitzpatrick said. “He says he could do or have nothing else at Christmas as long as he has the spirit that he gets from helping others. That’s all anyone needs.”

Lengyell also volunteers at community and church events like the trade fair, volunteer bank, fall fair, picker’s lunch and Blossom Festival parade (although this year he was honoured with a seat in a fire truck) “and assists with his leadership skills—the young kids all follow his lead.”

A leader by example, “Matthew makes helping others look so enjoyable and easy. He engages and encourages the efforts of his peers and younger kids; he is outgoing and affectionate, and shows courage in giving direction even it it’s not the ‘popular’ way to go,” Fitzpatrick said.

Lengyell is following his father’s footsteps, volunteering as a junior firefighter and is an active volunteer with the Creston Valley Thunder Cats and the Erickson Covenant Church youth group. He also works with students with special needs—he has Irlen syndrome, a perceptual processing disorder, and can identify with their individual challenges.

“Matthew is a young man of his word—very conscientious and keeps his promises, Fitzpatrick said. “He is committed to his various jobs and works diligently. He’s well liked by people of all ages who know him to be attentive, polite, sensitive to others and has a great sense of humour.”